Thursday, September 21st, 2017

Please join me at Open Book for a preview and discussion of my latest project, a collaboration with my sister, the composer/performer Julie Johnson; the St. Paul new music ensemble Zeitgeist; and actor/director/filmmaker D.J. Mendel. Based on my new story “Crocus Hill,” this performance project combines narration, music, and film to tell a tale set in an evil house in St. Paul. In late October/early November, we’ll be transforming Zeitgeist’s Studio Z into a creepy Victorian mansion and doing six performances of the show (Oct. 27-29 & Nov. 2-4; you can find more info here.

Thursday, September 14th, 2017

Please join me at Studio Z for a Lowertown Listening Session. We'll do a preview and discussion of my latest project, a collaboration with my sister, the composer/performer Julie Johnson; the St. Paul new music ensemble Zeitgeist; and actor/director/filmmaker D.J. Mendel. Based on my new story “Crocus Hill,” this performance project combines narration, music, and film to tell a tale set in an evil house in St. Paul.

In late October/early November, we’ll be transforming Zeitgeist’s Studio Z into a creepy Victorian mansion and doing six performances of the show (Oct. 27-29 & Nov. 2-4; you can find more info here.)

Saturday, March 25th, 2017

Ken Gonzales-Day is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice considers the historical construction of race. He supplements his photographs with research and writing that engage critically with history, art history, and Western conventions of race, blending historical tragedies with current events. Using photography and video, he explores trauma and resistance as experienced and embodied by racially oppressed populations in the U.S.

This exhibit will be a concise survey of the artist’s career, including works from the Erased Lynching, Searching for California Hang Trees, and Run Up series. His most recent work draws parallels between historical lynchings and high profile cases of police brutality affecting communities of color today. The core of the Run Up series is a cinematic restaging of the 1920 lynching of Charles Valento. Utilizing details drawn from the coroner’s report and his own archival research, Gonzales-Day chose to focus on this particular event in order to draw attention to the police presence at the scene that tacitly condoned the extralegal violence.

A survey of Gonzales-Day’s work brings up one of his most poignant questions: What is the difference between collective resistance and racially motivated violence? It is a question being asked after recent tragic events in cities around the country, such as Ferguson and Los Angeles, as well as St. Paul and Minneapolis. By presenting historical occurrences in conjunction with contemporary events Gonzales-Day collapses the historical distance and exposes the unchanging reality of racialized violence in the United States. Exploring the dichotomy between presence and absence, Gonzales-Day draws attention to the selective vision of American history and the perception of people of color as expendable. He combines scholarly research and a photo-journalistic sensibility with rich aesthetics to create jarringly haunting portraits of historical trauma present in both the people and the land of the United States.

Tuesday, March 21st, 2017

Dreamland Faces will accompany John Akre's recent animated feature Demolition Dreaming, a movie about the Gateway District in Minneapolis. Local seven member group The Poor Nobodys accompany the 2015 film Panacea as an opener.

Monday, March 13th, 2017

331 Club

Doug Otto & The Getaways - 10 pm

331 NE 13th Ave Minneapolis, MN 55401

Price: free

Monday, March 6th, 2017

331 Club

Doug Otto & The Getaways - 10 pm

331 NE 13th Ave Minneapolis, MN 55401

Price: free

Friday, March 3rd, 2017

Augsburg College

Ghastly Stitch: Senior Art Show by Adam Beech - 5:30-7:30 pm

Minneapolis MN Minneapolis, MN 55443

Price: free

Ghastly Stitch is a series of digital illustrations that depicts scenes from two converging stories. Set in 1900s London, the two main characters try to evade capture with what they've stolen: a body and a scythe. In the student gallery in Christensen Center. Show runs from February 27-March 17.

Friday, October 14th, 2016

Sunday, October 2nd, 2016

Bedlam Lowertown

Music Meets Minnesota Lit - 7 pm

213 4th St E St. Paul, MN 55101

Price: free

Ipsifendus Collective performs original compositions inspired by the work of recent Minnesota Book Award winners Charles Baxter (There’s Something I Want You to Do); Ray Gonzalez (Beautiful Wall); Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings); and Kaethe Schwehn (Tailings: A Memoir). The original songs will be paired with readings from each author.

Saturday, June 18th, 2016

During the 2015 holiday season, Kolman & Pryor Gallery hosted an “Art Up-Cycle” buy-back event. The community was invited to bring into the gallery any unloved, neglected or unwanted work on canvas, which Kolman & Pryor purchased for $1 a piece. In June, the event enters its next phase when selected local artists transform those pieces into new works that incorporate and build on their current practices.

The artists who were selected to upcycle pieces from the holiday event include gallery co-owner and curator, Patrick K. Pryor, gallery artist, Jodi Reeb, and local artists Jim Dryden, Laura Hallen, Nathanael Flink, Erik Benson, James Holmberg and Carolyn Swiszcz. Each artist was invited to select three to four pieces to work with.

Friday, June 10th, 2016

Tuesday, May 31st, 2016

Book Launch of Marge Barrett's Called: The Making & Unmaking of a Nun - 7 pm

1011 Washington Ave. South Minneapolis, MN

Price: $5-10 suggested donation

Thursday, May 26th, 2016

Dayblock Brewing

Headspace - 8-11 pm

1105 S Washington Ave Minneapolis, MN 55415

Price: free

Friday, May 20th, 2016

331 Club

Jay Lenz & Friends - 11:30 pm

331 NE 13th Ave Minneapolis, MN 55401

Price: free

Friday, May 20th, 2016

Rogue Buddha Gallery

Art-A-Whirl Open House - 11 pm

13th AVE NE Minneapolis, MN 55413

Price: free

Friday, May 20th, 2016

Thorp Building, Suite #128

Art-A Whirl 2016 with Julie and Cheri Johnson - 7:30 pm

1620 Central Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55413

Price: free

Please join us for Art-a-Whirl 2016 in Julie’s studio (#128) in the Thorp Building! We’ll start off the weekend with a Friday night performance of Terry Riley’s “In C,” the 1964 groundbreaking piece “born in the blue fog of Parisian jazz” that, according to Philip Oltermann at "The Guardian," “snatches the baton from the composer and hands it to the musicians.” Musicians include Julie Johnson, flute; Jeff Lambert, guitar; Bob Stacke and Paul Raukar, percussion; Carrie Vecchione, oboe; and Rolf Erdahl and Eric Struve, bass. Performance at 7:30!

On the walls will be photographs by Bob Stacke and the hand-sewn notebooks I’ve been making out of recycled materials—in particular all of the calendars and day planners I’ve been holding onto for years because the pictures were too pretty to throw away. And please bring your little ones to create with us at our kids’ art table!

One or both of us will be in the studio all weekend (Friday from 6-10, Saturday noon to 8 and Sunday noon to 5). Please stop by and say hello!

Thursday, January 21st, 2016

Thursday, January 21st, 2016

Intermedia Arts

Study 1 Perceptions: Stuck or UNstuck - 7:30 pm

2822 Lyndale Ave South Minneapolis, MN

Price: Pay-as-able, $8-15

This dance performance investigates the involuntary pull of Target Fixation. In the creative process movement habits and memory were challenged in finding an activating, adrenaline-rich presence in the work. The performers go on a visceral ride scrutinizing attention phenomenon, pushing volition, falling into tunnels and out of being trapped.

Saturday, November 7th, 2015

Red Eye Theater

Blueprint - 8 pm

15 W 14th Street Minneapolis, MN 55403

Price: $20 ($15 with Fringe button)

Created in part through a community interview process, this one-woman play with video, movement, and audio montage follows a modern-day cowgirl as she explores what it means to be a woman today. Join performance artist Candy Simmons as she unpacks this complicated topic with honesty and humor, weaving autobiographical content alongside community voices.

Sunday, June 7th, 2015

Friday, May 29th, 2015

The Bindery Projects

Kambui Olujimi: What’s Left to Burn? - 7-9 pm

708 Vandalia Street 4th Floor St. Paul, MN 55114

Price: free

Brooklyn-based artist Kambui Olujimi's first solo exhibition in the Twin Cities features a series of silk-screen prints, a large sculptural installation, and video work. Olujimi continues his inquiry into endurance and persistence amidst the tumultuous state of the nation using Depression-era dance marathons as a departure point.

Sunday, May 17th, 2015

Friday, May 15th, 2015

Thorp Building

Filling in the Blanks: Art-A-Whirl 2015 - 6:30 pm

1620 Central Ave. NE Suite #128 Minneapolis, MN 55413

Price: Suggested Donation $5

It's our favorite time of year again, and we're celebrating with a Friday night performance and opening in Julie's studio in the Thorp Building. We'll also have an open studio all weekend (Saturday & Sunday 12:30-5) , with music performances, paintings, photographs, and a kids' art table. Come create with us!

This year we're featuring collaborations with guest artists Bob Stacke and Eric Struve​. Julie Johnson​ (on flute, bass flute, and live looping pedals) and Eric Struve (upright bass) will play original work created last summer at a residency at Tofte Lake Center in the Boundary Waters, as well as Julie's "Folk Suite for Oboe and Bass." Working with a series of short excerpts from my novel-in-progress, but without reading the whole thing, photographer Bob Stacke is working to create his own pictorial narrative of the book, letting his imagination fill in the blanks. His interactive presentation of the work as a montage of images and text will ask the audience to choose their own combinations and imagine yet another story.

We'll open the studio at 6:30 Friday night; presentation and performances begin at 7 pm. I'll be showing new and old paintings as well. We’ll have wine and other refreshments, and everything is free and open to the public … we can’t wait to see you!

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

331 Club

Start-A-Whirl: The Poor Nobodys & Up the Mountain Down the Mountain - 10 pm

Saturday, May 2nd, 2015

Leonard Bernstein and Alec Wilder represent two iconic musicians who substantially shaped musical life in America. Born into a veritable melting pot, their eclectic styles are a direct result of New York's dynamic multi-cultural fabric. Many of Wilder's popular songs became classics, while Bernstein's masterful one-act opera is an ingenious example of social criticism.

8:30 Performance by Molly Margaret Johnson The Revolution Now exhibition, curated by Ash Marlene Hane and Angela Sprunger, acknowledges women who are creating change, locally or globally, known to many or known to a few. Their revolutions may be large and loud or slow and quiet, but their fight is now. Fourteen artists, including Hane & Sprunger, created new limited edition fine art prints for this show. Working in a variety of print media - including monoprint, relief and silkscreen - the collection introduces viewers to women from all over the world and in doing so encourages new dialogue and understanding.

Bertha and Louise are wandering in an empty wasteland when they both spot an egg at the same time. Bertha wants to turn the egg into an omelet; Louise wants to paint the egg for Easter. They each try to convince the other to give up dibs on the egg. The debate turns more and more violent and events spiral out of control. The production will use highly physical performance techniques with puppetry and clowning to tell the story of two women and an egg.

Saturday, November 15th, 2014

Hosmer Library

Hosmer World Music Concert Series: The Poor Nobodys - 2 pm

347 E. 36th St. Minneapolis, MN 55408 USA

Price: free

Friday, November 14th, 2014

Augsburg College

Dur-Dur Band: Augsburg College Convocation - 10 am

Minneapolis MN Minneapolis, MN 55443

Price: free

Formed in the 1980s, Dur-Dur Band was one of the most famous groups in Mogadishu’s music scene. In the early 1990s, the civil war forced the musicians into exile, cutting off the band in its prime. Reunited after decades for this residency, the convocation will provide a special opportunity to witness “Somalia’s last great party band” in an intimate setting and playing together live for the first time in years.

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

Local composer/performer Julie Johnson and New York-based director/film designer D.j. Mendel present “This Middle Place,” an original multimedia show that includes the work of four Minnesota visual artists and writers— Patrick Kemal Pryor, David Sollie, Cheri Johnson, and Sean Hill.

Friday, October 24th, 2014

Part of the Twin Cities Horror Festival. The Poor Nobodys play a live film score to their original psycho-thriller film in the style of David Lynch. Panacea was created in collaboration with filmmakers Crist Dahl & Chris Delisle of Rochester, MN and artist/puppeteer Daniel Polnau. All original music with original film + found footage.

Friday, June 13th, 2014

Friday, June 13th, 2014

Ivy Arts Building

Retrospective - 7:30 pm

2637 27th Avenue South, Studio 200g Minneapolis, MN 55406

Price: $5-20

New work by NYC playwright Chris Van Strander, featuring original artwork by local interdisciplinary artist Krista Kelley Walsh. A fully staged performance of a work-in progress that explores themes of art and interpretation through the story of folk artist Samson. Both performances will be followed by a reception for artists and audience.

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

Featuring the musicians of Zeitgeist on the first workshop performance of "Crocus Hill," a short story/music collaboration by my sister, Julie Johnson, and me, as well as new work by Colin Holter and Paola Prestini

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

I'm working as dramaturg on the workshop production of "The End of September," with music and script written by Aaron Gabriel with Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis.

The production is part of NEXT: New Musicals in the Making—Theater Latte Da's new work series that showcases three new musicals in various stages of development. Each of the three workshops will culminate in three public performances followed by a post-show discussion. These discussions provide audience members the opportunity to give immediate feedback and be part of the creative process.

Performance Dates/Times: Thursday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 4 at 2:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 23rd, 2014

Monday, February 17th, 2014

The Hive, Ivy Building for the Arts

Small Dances at The Hive - 7:30 pm

2637 27th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN

Price: pay-as-you-are-able

A night of performance choreographed by Laura Holway, and performed by Charles Campbell, Lazer Goese, Erika Hansen, and Tom Lloyd. It includes a handful of movement-based solos and duets, and text that has been collected from a series of questions asked to Minnesotans about their lives and coping with the wintertime.

Monday, January 13th, 2014

Kyle Sobczak's proposal was inspired by John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Sobczak will travel throughout the Midwest and conduct interviews with local residents. These interviews will be the basis for his new compositions, "Talking to Strangers: A Travelogue of Minnesota," giving musical voices to those who might not otherwise have them.

Friday, December 27th, 2013

Saturday, November 23rd, 2013

Red Eye Theater

The Blueprint Project, a workshop performance - 8 pm

15 W 14th Street Minneapolis, MN 55403

Price: pay-as-you-are-able, suggested donation $20

SunsetGun Productions presents a workshop performance of their newest play, The Blueprint Project. Created and performed by Candy Simmons in collaboration with the creative team, Blueprint takes us through a modern day blueprint of what it means to be a woman in America today.

Created in part through a community interview process, SGP explores this complicated topic through a highly physical performance, layering traditional character monologues, alongside heightened movement, alongside video vignettes.

Gender and power in our modern day society is still very much at the forefront. In what ways does or doesn't this awareness shape behaviors of our community, wherever you fall on the gender spectrum? Do women play by a separate stringent set of rules or are we all, men and women, bound by societal expectations packaged as cozy tradition? We welcome the public in as we take a giant leap in the development process of this one-woman play.

Gorge yourself on pickles of all kinds and sample preserves on homemade artisan bread.

Nocturnal Creatures Full Moon Walk

Guided 20 minute walk along the Farm’s nature trails; learn about the native creatures of the night and their connection to the lore of Halloween.

History & Marshmallows at the Bonfire

Partake in a good ol’ fashioned marshmallow roast at the Farm’s fire pit and revel in stories from Minnesota’s past.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Minnesota Territory!

Step back in time and see how you’d fare in 1850s Minnesota Territory with this interactive program sponsored by Richfield Historical Society.

Virtual Barn Raising

Celebrate in front of the restored oldest barn in Minnesota to the music of DJ Tom Sullivan of The Party Sound and partake in our virtual barn raising with all of the celebration and none of the work!

Plus... Door prizes from the Minnesota Historical Society for the first 500 guests, gifts from Caribou Coffee and Barnes and Noble; silent auction; local artists; live auction of delicious baked goods.

Thursday, September 12th, 2013

Thursday, September 12th, 2013

Common Good Books

Kevin Fenton premieres his new memoir "Leaving Rollingstone" - 7 pm

38 South Snelling Avenue St. Paul, MN

The author of Merit Badges returns with a memoir of change, loss, and renewal.

In 1959, Kevin Fenton was born on a family farm overlooking Rollingstone, Minnesota--a tight-knit village founded by Luxembourgers and so Catholic that the parish school was the only school in town. The farm, and Kevin’s memory, is filled with the closeness of his large family. Dennis, the oldest brother, drives everyone--rather dangerously--to school. His sisters dance to records in the afternoons. At bedtime, knock-knock jokes flow between the siblings’ rooms. Kevin has the powerful sense of being born lucky.

Soon, however, the farm is lost; the school closed; the family fractured. The family’s move from farm to city, while not all bad, leaves Kevin yearning for Rollingstone and the old family home. He begins a sometimes self-destructive search for new ways to define himself--in friendship, in art, in words--that lasts well into adulthood. And while his losses are still grievous, he begins to see new circuits of possibility and rediscover old sources of strength.

Leaving Rollingstone (available September 1), set in a time of major social change, is a portrait of the inevitability of loss and the power of choice, about how a big-city ad man and novelist reclaimed the enduring values and surprising vitality of his small-town boyhood.

Join Kevin Fenton and local literati Matt Mauch, Esther Porter and Phil Kronebusch as they read, reminisce and reclaim the enduring values and surprising vitality of childhoods spent in small towns.

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

The Playwright's Center

They Called Her Captain - 7 pm

2301 E Franklin Ave. Minneapolis, MN

Price: $12

On D-Day 1944, Jeanne Bearmon, a naive girl from Brooklyn, landed in the UK with the Women's Army Corps. Maggie Bearmon Pistner brings to the stage the characters who defined her mother's adventures. Written by Dawn Brodey

An evening devoted to indulging the sights, sounds, flavors, and aromas that pass us by each day. An eclectic palette of music and readings, from Bach to klezmer, Schubert to cabaret, will be accompanied by food and wine from the shores of the Mediterranean, the region that birthed the "Slow Food" movement and its dedication to sensory awakening.

Friday, March 15th, 2013

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

Weisman Art Museum

First Books Reading & Discussion - 7 pm

333 East River Road Minneapolis, MN 55455

Price: free

Three MFA alumnae of the Creative Writing Program who have recently published their first books will read and talk about the path to publication. Amanda Coplin's debut novel, The Orchardist (Harper), charted on The New York Times’ bestselling hardcover fiction list, was selected for the Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” series, and was reviewed favorably by O Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post, among many others. Nonfiction writer Elizabeth Larsen hit the IndieBound Independent Bestsellers children's interest list with her activity guide for kids, Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun (Bloomsbury), written with Joshua Glenn. Shana Youngdahl's debut collection of poetry, History, Lies and Other Half-Truths (Stephen F. Austin University Press) was described by The Adirondack Review as "beautifully composed--at once delicate and stern." The authors' books will be available for sale and signing.

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

331 Club

North Country Bandits - 10 pm

331 NE 13th Ave Minneapolis, MN 55401

Price: free

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Magers & Quinn

Happy Birthday, Justin Bieber: A Reading of New Work (MFA Candidates in creative writing at the University of Minnesota) - 7 pm

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

LAAC Coffee Concerts founders Carrie Vecchione, oboe/English horn, and Rolf Erdahl, double bass, join flutist/composer Julie Johnson and the No-Accounts, Doug Otto, vocals & guitar, and Drew Druckrey, resonator guitar, vocals, & mandolin, in this genre-stretching program. Their repertoire ranges from a Telemann sonata to a world premiere by Julie Johnson. Each group will share some of their signature tunes, and mix and match together in a delightful fusion of Minnesota roots, new music and evocative instrumental and vocal colors. Experience the melting pot of Minnesota tunes that Julie, Doug, and Drew have made a specialty - Metis fiddle tunes, Finnish and Eastern European folksongs, and a haunting hymn tune that helped Laura Ingalls Wilder's family make it through "The Long Winter" of 1880-81.